1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a plasma processing apparatus that generates plasma and processes a subject to be processed with the plasma and a plasma processing method to be adopted in the plasma processing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
It has been known in the related art that if the power of incoming microwaves changes while generating plasma through microwave discharge, surface waves in an inherent mode may be excited discontinously depending upon the extent of the power changes or the processing conditions, as shown in FIG. 10. If a surface wave mode is excited discontinously as described above, plasma electron density jumps (mode jumps) occur, whereby the electron density of the plasma generated under a dielectric member changes discontinously.